Pasco Housing Authority hasn't held meeting for months

DADE CITY, Fla. - The Pasco County Housing Authority is still having problems getting back on its feet.

The reason could be they can't seem to get enough board members together to hold a meeting and get any work done. Florida law states boards can't meet unless they have a quorum.

Pasco Housing Authority Board Chairman David Lambert took over after the former board was fired by the governor and the former executive director resigned before being fired following a 10 News Investigation into misspent funds, mismanagement, and allegations thatthe executive director was having sex on the job with employees.

Lambert maintains the agency is getting better. "This is an organization in transition and anything that has gone this long without care is going to take it a long time to turn it around," he said.

Christine Allamanno knows about things going without care. She's with Gulf Coast Legal Services and represents tenants of Dade Oaks, one of the housing authority's properties. Her clients tell her the apartments are in bad shape and are being neglected.

"A lot of little problems have become big problems. They're old buildings and you have to maintain old buildings, and as the last two Housing and Urban Development inspections have revealed, they have not been taking care of these buildings," said Allamanno.

The Pasco Housing Authority can't help right now becauseit had to cancel its monthly meeting again because there wasn't a quorum. That means except for the meeting where they interviewed and hired a new executive director, the board hasn't had a full meeting in months.

"Housing authorities throughout Florida generally meet on a monthly basis and try to address the concerns as they arise," said Allamanno.

Despite not having a quorum and not meeting for months, Chairman Lambert maintains there's not a problem with the agency. So unless the housing authority can get enough board members to show up for a meeting and have a quorum, it can't undo the mess created by the past board. That means it can't improve the living conditions of the peopleit issupposed to be helping.